Ignoring the “No Trespassing” sign, a fella decides to test his fate jumping a claim to look for some gold. He spends half a day digging and panning, sweating it out looking for a bit of color and hopefully for a nugget. When suddenly, EUREKA! He pulls out of the dirt a nugget the size of a chicken egg. Just as that moment though the claim owners discover this varmint jumping their claim, and they are mad as hell. The claim jumper jerks around to see a shotgun, a pistol, and a mean looking dog ready to tear his body to shreds. He takes off. Bullets are flying and the dog is hot on his heals. Full of panic the jumper drops the gold nugget, and without thinking he plunges over a waterfall hoping to lose his pursuers. Once the water clears at the bottom of the pool, the claim jumper comes upon the discovery of the century. Right before his eyes is a nugget the size of a basketball. In an instant he thinks of how lucky and rich he is. Unbeknown to the claim jumper though, lurking in the shadows of the murky water, a six foot pike eyeballs him. He just can’t win.
This is the concept motivating the four part photo series “Claim Jumper.” I began last week by hiking to Traverse Creek Falls north of Placerville, CA. By a description I found on the web it seemed to be a promising location for the shot where the claim jumper jumps over the falls. And the description was right. It was perfect except, there was very little water compared to what it would be in the winter during the rains and snow melt.I have plans to visit another water fall out by Mt. Shasta to see if it has more water and would work just as well for the scene I am visioning.
In the mean time I figured I’d try my hand at building the water fall in Photoshop to look the way I want. The image thus far is a composite of over 25 images of the water fall and about 18 layers of the actual water to create a large file of a full flowing deluge. Added to that is a clouded sky image created from about 15 images stitched in Photoshop. This is a rough copy as their are many details that need fixed, which I will complete later.
I wasn’t able to schedule all the models in one day. Last Saturday I photographed Carey at an accessible location at the American River Parkway in Sacramento. I first photographed him coming out of a trail and screaming at the claim Jumper. I created a 10 image composite of the scene without Carey, then later pasted him into the scene.
I hand crafted the rifle Carey is carying using a 2×6 Douglas fir for the stock and two dowel rods for the barrels. I did this for one because I don’t know anyone with a shotgun and the costume shop I visited didn’t have any props. Plus I didn’t want to worry about permits and dealing with any rangers at the County park. It just seemed easier to make the shotgun. And since Carey will remain in the background, any details missing on the gun won’t be noticed. Or I can later paint them in with Illustrator and/or 3D modeling.I found the authentic looking pistol in a toy store, which actually surprised me. With all the problems there has been with kids, toy guns and cops, I didn’t expect to find one so authentic. I’ll take out the orange plastic tip before the shoot. It’s about the size of a 22. I’d prefer at least a 38, but again, it’s going to be in the background, so I don’t think that detail will be noticeable.
Second I photographed Carey by the River posing as if he were shooting at the claim jumper. I’m not satisfied with the image, though. I plan to re-shoot the image but with a reflector filling in the shadows. I’m not necassarily concerned with a lot of details since the focus will be on the claim jumber, however I feel this imageof Carey is too dark. Again, I photographed the scene with a composite of 1o images, then pasted Carey into it.
My focus in the whole series in facial expression. I want the all the final images to have a crisp look with great details, but my goal is expressive faces–sort of a Norman Rockwell influence.
